You identify spam and scam callers receive a call from a number that looks familiar but doesn’t match the one shown on your caller ID. This is known as spoofing, and it’s a common tactic used by scammers to avoid detection. Some spoofed calls might even appear to be from local area codes or legitimate organizations (like the police or a hospital). These calls can also pretend to be debt collectors, health care providers, or charities. Scammers use these tactics to get you to buy overpriced service contracts or worthless warranties on your products, give them device access, or donate money.
A good way to help identify spam and scam callers is to register your phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry. Legitimate telemarketers are required to check this list before calling your phone number.
If you’re a Fios Digital Voice or Fios Xfinity Home Phone customer, you can use our Nomorobo service to help reduce unwanted robocalls. The service automatically identifies robocalls and telemarketers at the network level, so you’ll never receive them on your phone.
How Email Risk Scoring Services Protect Your Sender Reputation
If you want to take control of your phone and block calls and texts from suspicious numbers, consider using a privacy app like Truecaller. This app uses community reporting to help make communication safer, and provides spam stats on a number so you can confirm it’s a robocall or spam before answering it. You can also add a number to its “spam” list, which will prevent the number from ever showing up on your screen again.